ARTICLES ABOUT BUFFER STOCK BY DATE - PAGE 3

NEW DELHI: The government said there had been no mismanagement in maintaining buffer stocks of wheat and rice as only a meagre quantity of foodgrains got damaged last fiscal in the FCI storages. It also said the prices of these two key grains have been stable in the past year. "There has been no mismanagement and carelessness in maintaining the wheat and rice buffer stocks," Food and Consumer Affairs Minister K V Thomas said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha yesterday.

India is poised to meet huge overseas demand for rice after sevearal years of bumper harvests. On March 1, rice stockpiles in government warehouses stood at 33.2 mn t, three times the buffer stock target. Depreciation of the rupee against the dollar is expected to help Indian exporters stay competitive against Thailand and Vietnam. Market sentiment remains weak in in and arrival pressure keep the non-basmati and basmati market amply supplied. Government may decide to free export of wheat and rice after India gathers a record foodgrain harvest of 252 million tonnes.

After a series of knee-jerk reactions in March, today government again intends to decide on the vexed question of cotton exports that is rapidly acquiring a political life of its own. There are three sticking points and no one is yet clear on how to tackle them. First, traders are getting restive because export contracts worth Rs 7,000 crore are pending with the DGFT, awaiting scrutiny. However, DGFT now says it will call for more data to sift out deals between traders and their sister companies overseas because these have got the commerce ministry's goat.

NEW DELHI: The UPA-II regime, which has just lost key states in assembly polls and is set to face BJP strongman Narendra Modi in Gujarat next, is taking no chances with cotton. Despite stretched finances, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has given the nod for purchase of 2.5 million bales, worth 5,000 crore, by state-run Cotton Corporation of India to keep the market significantly above the minimum support price after farmers in top grower Gujarat resorted to arson.

NEW DELHI: Helped by a record output of wheat and rice, India's foodgrain stocks rose by 18 per cent to 54.52 million tonnes as on March 1, according to official data. The foodgrain stock with Food Corporation of India (FCI), India's nodal agency for foodgrain procurement and distribution, stood at 46.01 million tonnes in the year-ago period. Wheat stocks rose to 21.25 million tonnes as of March 1, 2012 from 17.15 million tonnes in the same period of the previous year, while stocks of rice rose to 33.17 million tonnes from 28.72 million tonnes in the same period.

NEW DELHI: The Commerce Ministry today said that an Iranian private trader has evinced interest in importing a "very large" quantity of wheat from India. "That (the deal) is still under negotiations...It is true that there is one private sector trader from Iran who is interested in importing a very large quantity of wheat (from India)," Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters here. He, however, did not specify the details. According to an official, Iran presents huge opportunities in exports of agriculture commodities like wheat and rice.

NEW DELHI: Foodgrain stocks in the government's godowns were almost two-and-a-half times more than the required stock at 51.78 million tonnes at the start of the current month, a fact that re-affirms India's food surplus status. As per government norms, Food Corporation of India (FCI) should have 21.2 million tonnes (MT) of wheat and rice available in its buffer stock as of October 1 every year, which includes 5 MT in strategic reserves. Among total reserves, 51.20 million tonnes of foodgrains are stored in various government godowns and 0.58 million tonnes is in transit, the latest FCI data said.

NEW DELHI: Only four lakh tonne of foodgrains out of a total of 50 lakh tonne earmarked for 150 poor districts of the country has been lifted for distribution so far, the Government informed the the Lok Sabha today. Replying to a Calling Attention, Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution K V Thomas said while the Centre has agreed to the directions of the Supreme Court to allocate 50 lakh tonne additional foodgrains to 150 poorest districts, so far only four lakh tonne has been lifted for distribution.

NEW DELHI: The foodgrain stocks held in government godowns amounted to 61.27 million tonnes (Mt) at the start of the current month, according to the latest data from the Food Corporation of India (FCI). FCI, the nodal agency for foodgrains procurement and distribution, had 25.27 Mt of rice and 35.87 Mt of wheat in its storage facilities as of August 1, a senior official said. As per government norms, the FCI should have 21.2 Mt of wheat and rice available in its buffer stock as of October 1 every year.

PUNE: Sugar prices, which rose by Rs 1/kg before the announcement of the second tranche of sugar export quota on Thursday, fell back later because there was no clarity on the limit of stocks traders hold. The stock-holding limit on traders had been relaxed to 500 tonne/month in March from 200 tonnes/month. As there were reports of a further relaxation inthis limit, prices had moved up. "The market was upbeat over the reports that a decision on lifting the stock limit will also be considered during the meeting to discuss sugar exports.